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Gidophone to Make US Debut at CES 2013

Gidophone, a subsidiary of ASKCO, was established in 2009 with the goal of providing a solution to a problem that has become more apparent with the increasing popularity of smartphones: battery failure while on the go. Since then, the company has been working toward placing wireless kiosks with a universal induction charging system in public places.

In fact, Gidophone founder and CEO Romain Lecarpentier knows the annoyance of losing power at the wrong time and place all too well, which inspired him to create the company.

“While traveling around the world in 2006, I spent a lot of time in airports,” said Lecarpentier, in a statement. “There I often encountered the same problem — I ran out of battery power on my mobile devices. More often than not, I had a dead battery on my phone or my MP3 player. My chargers were in my luggage — already checked — and I never managed to find a solution to my problem. I quickly realized that I was not the only one facing this issue; and that’s when I got the idea of a charging kiosk.”

Today, Gidophone has its kiosks in place in over 100 locations throughout Europe and next week at the 2013 International Consumer Electronics Show (CES (News - Alert)), the company plans to unveil its product in the U.S. for the first time. This means these kiosks will be available for purchase or rental for use in public spaces such as airports, train stations, shopping centers and hotels in North America in the near future.

These six-foot, eight-inch tall towers are capable of quickly recharging practically any tablet, cellphone, tablet, MP3 player, portable game console, PDA or camera, and they can be customized to include product shelving, hooks and multimedia accessories — as well as corporate branding.

Other new tech revelations to look forward to at this year's CES include GeneralTouch's PIT touchscreen technology, which promises superior performance to other touchscreen technologies, an Cavium's PureVu Miracast solutions.